As a financial scandal engulfs the royal family and politicians begin to call for his abdication, Spain's
King Juan Carlos faces one of the worst weeks in his 37-year reign,
with prosecutors set to ask a judge to formally name his daughter
Princess Cristina as a suspect in a multimillion-euro fraud and money-laundering case.
The
request, which would be a preliminary step to a possible indictment, is
poised to be made next week and will be based on the testimony of Diego
Torres, a former business school lecturer who became the partner of
Cristina's husband, Iñaki Urdangarin.
Juan Carlos's nightmare week
starts in Palma de Mallorca , when Urdangarin must appear before an
investigating magistrate who has demanded that he and Torres post a
joint bond of €8.1m (£7m).
The size of the bond points to the
millions of euros that – via a foundation in which the princess served
as a board member – the two men allegedly obtained from fraudulent deals
with politicians keen to bathe in the reflected glory of royalty. Part
of the money was allegedly then laundered through offshore accounts.
"If
the princess sits in the dock, the blow to the monarchy's prestige will
be huge," said Miguel Bernad, head of the controversial far-right Clean
Hands movement that has sent a prosecutor to join the case and who will
ask investigating magistrate José Castro to formally name the king's
daughter as a suspect.
Castro has turned down similar requests
before, but Bernad said fresh evidence had cast serious doubts over
Urdangarin's claim that his wife had a hands-off relationship with the
foundation. Urdangarin and Torres, who have been named as suspects but
not indicted, also deny any wrongdoing.
The
growing scandal surrounding the king's daughter and her husband, who
were given the title of Dukes of Palma by the king after she married the
Olympic-medal winning handball player in 1997, has reached a new peak
as Urdangarin prepares to appear before Castro to answer more questions
about the multimillion-euro deals struck by the supposedly
not-for-profit Nóos Institute with regional governments in Valencia and
the Balearic Islands.
Those questions will probably centre on
testimony given by Torres last week – including dozens of emails that
allegedly show that the king tried to help his son-in-law land
potentially succulent, if legal, contracts. Torres reportedly has
hundreds of emails stored, and has slowly been releasing them in what is
widely seen as an attempt to pressure the royal family to help him
avoid punishment.
Emails handed to the court reportedly include at
least one from Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who made headlines last
year when it was discovered she was in Botswana when Juan Carlos, who
left his wife Queen Sofia behind, injured himself during an
elephant-hunting trip. The king later made an unprecedented public
apology for going on the trip. There was no suggestion of any of wrongdoing by Sayn-Wittgenstein.
Sources
close to the case say, in evidence last week, Torres also claimed
senior politicians from Valencia travelled to the king's Zarzuela Palace
in Madrid to discuss future contracts with his son-in-law. A palace
adviser who also served on the foundation's board, Carlos García
Revenga, is also due to be questioned by Castro on Saturday.
The
king is said to be outraged by his son-in-law's behaviour and last year
barred him from officially representing the royal family. Last month,
the duke's personal profile was erased from the royal website.
A spokesman for the king said they had no comment to make on the
evidence and emails provided by Torres, possibly because some Spanish
newspapers have reported that the emails were unlikely to lead to
Cristina being named as a suspect. One of the Valencia politicians who
allegedly met Urdangarin to talk business at Zarzuela Palace, Francisco
Camps, has denied the meeting.
"It seems clear that the king was trying to help in the business dealings of his son-in-law and daughter," said Bernad.
Discontent
with the monarchy is no longer confined to avowedly republican parties
or rightwingers, who have never forgiven the king for introducing
democracy and transforming the state handed to him by dictator General
Francisco Franco on his death in 1975, when Spain's historically fragile
monarchy was restored for the second time in a century.
On
Wednesday, Pere Navarro, head of the socialist party in Catalonia,
became the first senior politician to call for Juan Carlos to abdicate
in favour of his heir, Prince Felipe. "We need a new head of state to
make the transition of the 21st century," he said.
While the
socialist party's Madrid leadership refused to back Navarro, powerful
sections of the party are pressing for a new transparency law to include
a clause forcing the king to reveal detailed accounts of the royal
family's spending.
The Spanish crown's growing problems were
vividly depicted earlier this month when council workers armed with a
metal ladder and a plaque turned up in a street named Rambla dels Ducs
de Palma de Mallorca near the city's court.
With the help of a
power-drill, it took just a few minutes to erase the dukes' names from a
street map and to erect a new sign renaming the street "La Rambla".
"And it would be best if they didn't show their faces around here any
more," said one passer-by.